Way back in the late 70's when Mr J and I ran a bar/bistro 50 miles from home we lived above the 'shop' during the week and came home Sat night. By the time we'd cashed up, locked up and had chips, beans and a mug of tea with the lorry drivers at Watford Gap (great fun!) we usually got home about 1am - 2am.

One Sat night as we drove onto the path we noticed a little hooded figure across the road. Shades of Donald Sutherland's film Don't Look Now I was scared out of my wits! Mr J called over and it was a little boy about 5 or 6 - he was a little bit scared, but able to tell us where he lived. We took him home about half a mile away, with lots of left and right turns. We knocked his Mom up and it turned out he'd been staying overnight with his grandparents who lived about 300 yards from us in the road opposite.

He'd managed to put his coat on and got out and wanted to find his way home. Everybody was just so relieved that everything ended well. Sadly I have grave misgivings about Mikaeel and just hope that this is resolved as quickly as possible.

I agree, the sighting could be some child running to school. He could be a short-for-his age five year old. The people who reported him running on his own were in cars, and so would have seen him briefly on the drive past, maybe on a school run themselves, and only thought about its being possibly him afterwards. Also, the child's mum could have been following fairly closely behind, with a younger child in a push chair. 'You can run up to the corner, but then you must wait for me to cross the road'... if he was that kind of reliable child. Me, I would prefer not to risk it... My number one would have been fine to do that, but my number two would have been too mischievous. Those who reported the child they saw were right to do so. It is possible it could have been the missing boy... I suppose.

I don't really know much about this case, unlike another one I can think of, so I realise that it is not wise to comment on it. I only know what anyone who watches tele knows... His mother said he didn't like hats, and the sighted child was wearing one, and no hats were missing from the flat. Yeah, someone could have taken him, and given a hat to him as a present, but that is fruitless speculation.

As a pure guess ... I think it is a case of the police quite properly 'managing the flow of information'... telling the public only the things that might help their search... ie what he looks like, what he was wearing, where they want help to re-check over ground already covered etc. These police are better organised than those dealing with the April Jones case: I guess they learned from it, and they are stressing that people should go out properly dressed and equipped for bad weather. Let us hope it has a better outcome than the April Jones case. Someone, sure as hell, knows what happened.

The police tell us that they are working 'on his mothers say so' (!) of what happened and when. They must be working on all the other possibilities as well, or they should be. IMHO kids of that age do not dress themselves and take off in the dark and the cold late at night on their own... Unless perhaps he was terrified of something or someone. If he went off on his own and crouched and hid in some outhouse, I believe he would likely have succumbed to hypothermia by now, poor child, esp if he was wet. We have already been told that outer door to the flats was too heavy for a child to open on his own though, and they will have dusted it for his fingerprints by now. Either something happened to him in that appartment complex or, as is also quite possible, he went missing in the daytime done up in his normal outdoor gear. He had been off nursery school for sometime with a cold... which may or may not be true.

The people to quiz ... very carefully, and by someone fully trained for the job.... would be his brothers and sisters. Who shared a room with him? Five kids all under ten and a lone parent living with them, and the father having practically no contact since birth... Surely the children had to be sharing bedrooms. What about his twin sister? In my experience, my twin grandchildren usually each know exactly where the other one is and what he/she is doing. Ask her what she knows about his disappearance. A lot of reports speak of Mikeeal as a toddler. Toddlers are one year olds, or at most a few rather physically immature two year olds. True not all three year olds are extremely articulate, but most of them can give a good account of themselves, and what has happened, and what they saw. What they are NOT at all good at is dates, and times... yesterday... on Thursday, etc... The nine year old should be well up for that, however.

I have not been online since well before it happened and I have deliberately not read all the threads. I will now glean all the wit and wisdom of my fellow posters. Again, it is very sad that this is happened, whoever is at the bottom of it... Fingers crossed.

I wonder what the several suited CID gentlemen (not the white-clad forensics people) with computer sized black bags went to the flat to do...

Agree with all you have said. Who the hell knows what he was wearing; certainly mummy did not see him LEAVE. Even a child who wears hats would likely lose it on a walk about - my kids shed mittens, hats and even shoes and coats everywhere, jumpers etc at school, you name it they left it on the playground, in the car, etc. Had son return home with his boot and another boy's boot and only noticed it the following day when I saw they were both left-footed boots. Expecting a 3 year old to behave in some kind of organized fashion is folly. They cannot know what he had on when he left apart from if his mother saw his boots and coat missing she could assume he was wearing them when he left.

As you say the best thing is to have the older siblings questioned by someone who knows how. If this boy wasn't seen at school or pre school since CHRISTMAS and due to a cold -!!

I don't think a child would hide and freeze to death in some out house, not if he left at morning - would he have wandered undetected for a full day and then hidden? No. More likely he was abducted off the street or more likely still never left that flat that morning unless his older sibs can put him sick with a cold and in the home the night before and many nights since Christmas.

I hope to God this child is found and found alive and it is all a big misundertanding.

Like everyone else, I hope this little fellow is found safely and in good condition but as time goes by it certainly does not look good. 2007 changed my mind about these "missing" children cases. The details of this case are very disturbing.

Since WHEN did 'Professional Abductor' become a career option? This is sheer insanity.There is no such thing.This little child had older siblings.Have none of them seen him since Christmas? Has anyone even asked?The lives some poor little children are born into!

Chances of boy leaving flat on his own through the flat entrance door and then the front security door = very small chance.

Chance of highly experienced professional Abductors gaining entry through the front security door and then the flat entrance door finding the boys bedroom getting him dressed then leaving undetected = probably quite small chance (chance of the expert who suggested this being a free mason mccann sympathiser = quite high chance)

Chance of family member ie Father having acquired a key and taken boy = hopefully a good chance

Chance of mother telling lies = hopefully not but ?

The older siblings may well be able to confirm if Mikaeel was in the flat the night he disappeared.

[quote="widowan"]That is what I thought. I know a 3 year old when I see one, and while I would not think twice of an 8 year old walking at 8 30 AM presuming he'd be on his way to school, I might phone it in anyhow thinking, maybe I'm wrong about how big this child was, maybe that was a big 3 year old or maybe this kid is 5 or - better to be safe than sorry.

Same here. I would not watch a toddler walking on his/her own at any time of day without trying to find out if they were in danger.

widowan wrote:That is what I thought. I know a 3 year old when I see one, and while I would not think twice of an 8 year old walking at 8 30 AM presuming he'd be on his way to school, I might phone it in anyhow thinking, maybe I'm wrong about how big this child was, maybe that was a big 3 year old or maybe this kid is 5 or - better to be safe than sorry.

Same here. I would not watch a toddler walking on his/her own at any time of day without trying to find out if they were in danger.

That's why it almost never happens. And why I don't think it happened in this case.

Kids of this age just don't disappear without crime being a factor. Nobody has seen this child, which IMO is just not possible, no CCTV, he wouldn't know where to cross roads or do it safely, he wouldn't be confident walking forever, a soon as he got cold or hungry he'd be screaming his head off for his mummy.

And we can add the poor Philpott children into the number of scams since 2007.

The police are careful not to say when the last confirmed sighting of the little boy was. I don't blame them for this. Because if it was a while ago this would not sound promising. And also if the child has been ill how have the other children gone to school. By themselves. All sounds a bit odd. Surely the mother has been seen out of the house in the last week or so.